Model the history of ocean sediment deposition from rift to trench

Ocean sediments are often used to tell the story of oceanic lithosphere from the accretionary zone to the trench, including when it is embedded in orogens. Although the processes of littoral sedimentation are well developed in general education classes in France, oceanic sedimentation is only used to account for the age of layers or to provide information on the climatic parameters of paleoenvironments in classes of specialty in Life and Earth Sciences from the High School. This results in difficulty understanding the meaning of oceanic geological units’ maps and the story they tell during the lifespan of the oceanic lithosphere. To remedy this problem and allow students to acquire for themselves the concepts of biostratigraphy, time, accretion and disappearance in the trenches of oceanic sediments, we have developed and manufactured models which allow students, while manipulating, to assimilate these concepts. We present here these models, their operating principle and the concepts they allow us to acquire.